Huelskamp hits Medicaid expansion

A small group of stalwart House conservatives aren’t abandoning their efforts to gut Obamacare through government funding bills.

Should another continuing resolution be needed in January, Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.) said some conservative lawmakers want to include a provision to eliminate the Medicaid expansion funding that was added in the Affordable Care Act.

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The funds would then be used to cover the $20 billion in cuts to defense spending that are set to go into effect in January as part of the sequester , he said. The Medicaid expansion costs about $21 billion for the rest of the fiscal year, said Huelskamp, who supports keeping the sequester cuts in place.

“We would like to take something out of Obamacare, and we looked at the Medicaid numbers and thought, ‘Geez, we can take some of that and put it to some of the sequester cuts,’” he said. “It helps us achieve two goals at once — one to pull something out of Obamacare… Two, it pushes back at some Republicans worried about the sequester.”

The whole idea is a longshot.

It’s only a small group of House Republicans at this point considering the proposal after the suggestion was made during a brain-storming session of conservatives, Huelskamp said. But they’re hopeful they can win more support in the coming months in the same way they were able to gain momentum for an Obamacare battle in the last government funding fight.

“Maybe we’ll have a little more of a fight in us in January,” Huelskamp said.

Republicans are well aware of the possible pitfalls of warring over Obamacare during another battle over government spending — this time during an election year. Backed by tea party lawmakers, the government shut down for 16 days in October after House Republicans pushed a funding bill that included a repeal or delay of Obamacare.

As a result, the GOP largely took the blame for the standoff and the GOP took a beating in public opinion polls. There is reluctance from leadership and more moderate Republicans in the House to have the fight again so soon.

“I don’t think you’re going to have CR interacting with Obamacare,” said conservative Rep. John Fleming (R-La.), who was a staunch supporter of the effort earlier this year to tie the two. “That was the last gasp effort to it. To be honest, it’s [Obamacare] rolled out worse than we expected.”

He added, “At this point the CR needs to be purely a budget debate, and we need to let Obamacare take care of itself.”

Another government funding battle over Obamacare is a longshot.

The budget conference committee, which has been tasked with trying to iron out a deal that would settle on spending levels for the next year, would have to fail before another continuing resolution is even needed.

And while failure is a real possibility, the House GOP leadership is already putting together contingency plans for a continuing resolution at sequester levels that doesn’t change Obamacare.

But Huelskamp said a CR at sequester levels — $967 billion — is not something conservatives are crazy about because they want to see deeper cuts in government spending. Cutting funding for Obamacare would win many over, he said.

The cuts would have few drawbacks for Republicans, he argues. GOP governors have largely declined the Medicaid expansion dollars, so the cuts would be disproportionately leveled on blue states.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-Md.) is pushing the proposal among his colleagues, arguing that lowering the federal match for Medicaid from 100 percent to 90 percent wouldn’t cause a disruption for states.

“Most states would or should have expected, given the fiscal problems in Washington, that the timetable of Medicaid state cost-sharing under the Affordable Care Act would be accelerated at some point,” he said in a statement. “The current sequester situation seems to be a reasonable trigger for that acceleration.”

Complicating the matter, Medicaid funding is mandatory, meaning if it isn’t included in a continuing resolution and would require cutting from a part of federal spending that is rarely addressed.

The proposal would undoubtedly draw opposition from Democrats, who don’t want to see the Affordable Care Act damaged, would oppose any cuts to Medicaid and are against keeping sequester level funding.

”This proposal is a non-starter for House Democrats and the many governors — both Republican and Democratic — across our country who have already expanded health coverage for the neediest of Americans,” said Drew Hammill, spokesman for Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.). “It is shameful, but not surprising that House Republicans would add this new and cynical attack on health care reform to their existing efforts to repeal and undermine the law.”